Seyran Shahsuvaryan

The hearsay that by a decree of the Armenian Defense Ministry men aged 18-45 are prohibited from leaving the republic does not correspond to reality. The hearsay that the Armenian Armed Forces hold unscheduled call-up is false. The persons, who have already served their military service, are not conscripted in Armenia.

The equipment that comes to Armenia from the Russian bases in Georgia goes to the 102nd Russian base in Gyumri. The equipment is delivered to the base in order to replace missing equipment and it is at the Russian sideís disposal. The Armenian side has nothing to do with these weapons.

I canít comment on nonsense. To announce support of Levon Ter-Petrossian, the officials Ter-Petrossian mentioned [Grigoryan and Melkonyan] should hand in their resignations. I do not possess any information on their resignation.

The general number of the Armenian peacekeepers, who took part in "Operation: Iraqi Freedom," totaled 182. Yesterday the fourth shift of Armenian peacekeepers was sent to Iraq. It includes 3 staff officers, 2 medical officers, 10 combat engineers and 31 drivers.

The exercise is targeted at development of cooperation between the NATO member-sates and the servicemen participating in Partnership for Peace Program as well as perfection of joint command in NATO peacekeeping operations. Military from Azerbaijan, Germany, Denmark, Estonia, Latvia, Poland, Lithuania, Canada, UK, Georgia and Finland are expected to take part in the maneuvers.

Turkish Army chief of General Staff General Huseyin Kivrikoglu's statement that Armenia has weapons of mass destruction is an absurd attempt to compromise Armenia in the eyes of the international community.